Colorado Rockies: reflecting on the 2017 season month by month

The Colorado Rockies regular season ended yesterday with a 6-3 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers. With the loss, they would end the season with a 87-75 record, good enough to net the club with the second National League Wild Card spot. They will face the Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League Wild Card game on Wednesday.

Even though it was an up and down ride for the Colorado Rockies and their fans during the season, when you look at the team month-by-month, their season presents a different story than you may imagine.

April

On April 13, Jon Gray went down with a foot injury that would sideline him until June 30. Chad Bettis was out with cancer treatments until August. Tyler Anderson had an ERA of 7.71 on the month. Free agent signing Ian Desmond did not make his season debut until April 30. Carlos Gonzalez hit .216 on the month. You would think with all of those things that the Rockies would have not played well in the month but, if you remember correctly, the Rockies had an excellent month of April.

They were 16-10 on the month. They even had a tough schedule as they faced the Brewers to open the season, five games with the Dodgers, four with the Washington Nationals, and three with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

If you look at the numbers, the Rockies shouldn’t have played this well. They scored 4.6 runs per game and they allowed…4.8 runs per game. The offense only had a slash line of .247/.310/.440 and the pitching staff had an ERA of 4.58 (plus six unearned runs allowed in the month).

Just comparing runs in general, the Rockies got 119 runs on the month and allowed 125 runs.

Hypothetically and mathematically, they shouldn’t have done well…but they did.

The main people behind the team offensively were, as you may expect, Nolan Arenado and Charlie Blackmon. Arenado had an offensive slash line of .293/.355/.616. He had 29 hits, nine doubles, seven home runs, and 16 RBI in addition to his stellar defense. Blackmon only had a slash line of .290/.336/.589 (which is much lower than his slash line on the season) but he still did well. On the month, he had 31 hits, five doubles, three triples, seven home runs, and 24 RBI.

On the pitching staff, Kyle Freeland had a breakout start to his rookie season with a 3-1 record and a 2.93 ERA and Antonio Senzatela was 3-1 with a 2.81 ERA in the first month of his rookie season.

They would end the month in first place, just half a game ahead of the D’Backs for first.

In the month of June, the Rockies were extremely streaky. Starting on June 3, they had a seven game winning streak followed by a three game losing streak. They immediately followed that streak with a six game winning streak that they followed with an eight game losing streak that ended on June 30.

Total for the month, the Rockies were 15-12. The offense averaged 5.2 runs per game with an offensive slash line of .276/.342/.413.

The pitching faltered in the month as their ERA was 5.05 in June. The bullpen had an ERA of 5.18 in June, which was up from 3.81 in May. The starting pitcher’s ERA increased from 3.96 in May to 4.97 in June.

In the eight game losing streak, both sides completely fell apart. The offense, in those games, hit .206/.270/.270 and averaged 2.9 runs per game. The pitching was even worse as they had an ERA of 8.16 in that span (that’s not a typo).

In the month, however, Nolan Arenado was the main offensive force for the Rockies. He only had three home runs in the month but in 27 games played, he had 27 RBI with a .324/.361/.568 slash line in the month.

In July, the Rockies only went 12-12. The offense played really well as they averaged 6.2 runs per game. They also had an offensive slash line of .297/.350/.490. However, the pitching was terrible in the month of July. They had an ERA of 5.38 on the month. This was, by and large, from the fault of the starting pitching. Their ERA was an alarming 5.71 in the month.

The rotation issues were highlighted by Jeff Hoffman as, in five starts in the month, he had an ERA of 8.00. One bright spot in the starting rotation was German Marquez. He made five starts in the month and he got into the seventh inning in four of the five games. He never allowed more than three earned runs in any start. His ERA for the month was 3.51.

Charlie Blackmon had another excellent month as he hit .370/.411/.670 with 30 hits, three doubles, three doubles, three triples, seven home runs, and 13 RBI.

Nolan Arenado played even better than Blackmon in July. His offensive slash line was .389/.423/.744 in the month. In 22 games, he had 35 hits, 18 runs, six doubles, eight home runs, and 30 RBI in July.

The month of August was the only month that the Rockies were under .500 (unless you consider the one regular season game that they played and lost in October as a month).

The Rockies were 12-15 in the month. They didn’t lose games in droves but they could never mount a good winning streak. They never won more than three in a row (they even only did that once from August 3 through August 5) and they never lost more than four in a row (August 19-23).

The problem that the Rockies had been that the offense was inconsistent. They only hit .269/.344/.447 in the month and averaged 4.3 runs a game. That’s including a game where they had 17 runs and 18 hits on August 17 against the Braves. If you subtract that game out, in the rest of the month they hit .261 and averaged 2.6 runs per game.

The pitching staff had an ERA of 4.27 in August. The bullpen, even with Greg Holland‘s disastrous 13.50 ERA with four losses, had an ERA of 3.94 (their second best month only to May’s 3.81).

The main offensive force for the Rockies was (big surprise!) Charlie Blackmon. In the month of August, he played 27 games and he scored 27 runs, had 41 hits, eight doubles, eight home runs, 14 RBI, 19 walks (compared to 19 strikeouts), and an offensive slash line of .383/.484/.701 in the month.

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Although there was some doubt on whether the Rockies would hold on to the second Wild Card spot, they did hold on with their 15-14 September and October record.

The offense rebounded as during this span as they had an offensive slash line of .271/.347/.444 and they averaged 4.9 runs in September and October. They were a bit inconsistent at times but it was nothing like the month of August.

On the pitching front, the Rockies had a team ERA of 4.09. You may be surprised for all months this season, the Rockies starting pitching was best in September as their ERA was 3.86.

Jon Gray went 4-1 with a 2.67 ERA and a .225 opponent batting average.

For Tyler Chatwood, he had five starts in the month and he had an ERA of 2.92 in that span.

But perhaps, most surprising of all, the return of Tyler Anderson. He made his return on September 11 and in four appearances (three starts and one relief outing that was still four innings), he only allowed a run in one of the four appearances. In the four games, he has gone 22 2/3 innings pitched and he has only allowed 13 hits, three runs, three walks, and he has struck out 18. His ERA in that span? 1.18. His opponent’s slash line? .173/.200/.227.

Final Thoughts

With the way that Gray, Chatwood, and Anderson pitched down the stretch, I would expect to see Rockies manager Bud Black rely heavily on those three for starts in the NLDS (if they get that far).

Next: 3 great quotes from the Rockies wild card celebration

Also, by going month by month, you can see the ebbs and flows of a baseball season. Overall, even though some people doubted them at some point or another (I was part of it and chances are, you did too), they played well enough, especially in the beginning of the season, to warrant a playoff spot. And as they say, as long as you get to the playoffs, you’ve got a shot to win it all.